


Dueling for Dummies

by carsinoska



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's
Genre: Gen, Not Serious
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-12
Updated: 2016-11-12
Packaged: 2018-08-30 15:48:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8538955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carsinoska/pseuds/carsinoska
Summary: Antinomy teaches Paradox how to duel.





	

There was no doubt that Duel Monsters was a very integral part of their society, or whatever that was left of it anyways. It was just that Paradox never had the time to immerse himself in it. If he wasn’t going to pursue a career in dueling, then it was just a waste of his time. He was just too busy studying.

He tried the game once, when he was a child and his parents had bought him some cards for his birthday. Other children in the schoolyard brought their cards to school and duelled during lunch break, so he did the same. It wasn’t as though they followed all the rules, since they were young and couldn’t be bothered to read the whole rulebook, but Paradox was excited to join in.

However, when he managed to summon his new favourite monster, Sin Truth Dragon, the wind seemed to pick up, and the Solid Vision seemed to be a little more than just that. With his opponent’s field wide open, he attacked them directly, but something must have gone wrong, because the ground cracked open and his opponent was lying there, heavily injured.

He was only suspended for a few days, but when he came back, there were the rumours. He’s dangerous, don’t talk to him. Did you hear that he hurt that other kid on purpose? Eventually, he moved schools, but the rumours seemed to follow him. Ever since then, his parents had banned him from dueling and hid his cards somewhere. Not that he wanted to play again. So he forgot about the game as best as he could and focused on his studies.

Before he moved out for university, he searched the house for his old deck. Maybe it wasn’t him that caused the incident, but rather, the deck? Whatever the case, he wanted to keep an eye on the cards.

And so that brought him to where he was, sitting with former pro league duelist Johnny, trying to learn the game all over again.

“You’re going to have to duel someday, Paradox, if we’re going to go about changing the future,” Antinomy said.

“I’m not entirely sure that if I were to duel, that I would be saving the future rather than dooming it even more than it already is.”

Antinomy looked at him with confusion. “What do you mean? Well maybe we don’t have to actually duel, but I’ll just teach you the basics. So at least you’ll be ready when the time comes.”

It turned out Antinomy’s idea of “the basics” was totally different from Paradox’s.

“All right,” Antinomy said. “So how would you go about summoning your Sin Paradox Dragon?”

“I just have to tune Sin Parallel Gear with another Sin monster. But more importantly, I don’t have any level eight Sin monsters…”

“What?! You played when you were a kid, right? Then how did you…?”

“We kind of made up our own rules sometimes. We were young.”

“Well, anyways, that’s beside the point. If you’re not going to duel anytime soon, it’s all right for now. No, what I really meant was a chant! A chant is the most important thing when it comes to special summons!”

“Why on earth would I need one?” Paradox asked, deadpan.

Antinomy winked. “Just believe me! I’m a pro, remember!”

No, Paradox did not believe him. A summoning chant was ridiculous and a waste of time, not to mention embarrassing. Maybe in the entertainment industry it was important, but there was no one left to entertain, so it was useless.

“Look, I’m not teaching you anything else until you get this right. Everyone does it, okay?”

“…Fine,” he said with much reluctance.

“So how about... Hm…” Antinomy threw suggestions at him left and right, but they were all ridiculously cheesy. How was he supposed to be taken seriously if he said those things?

“I’ll come up with one, I swear. I just… can’t think about it if you’re going to throw these ridiculous suggestions at me,” Paradox said.

Antinomy gave him a long stare. Finally, he seemed to concede. “Fine. But you better come up with one!”

Honestly, he did think of something, but it was too embarrassing to say it out loud to his friend. It was maybe a little bit too embarrassing to say to anyone, really. But anything to get him off his back and actually start teaching him the game.

* * *

“Let’s work on drawing technique!” Antinomy said.

“I’m not sure why I need to learn this before learning the rules,” Paradox said.

“This stuff is plenty important. Strategy can only get you so far. You need to have a decent hand, at least.”

Antinomy took out his own deck and showed Paradox how he drew his cards. It was much too dramatic for something so simple. He had become very close to Antinomy in the past few years, but sometimes Paradox could not understand his friend in the slightest. This was definitely one of those times. Why couldn’t he just take the card from the deck like a normal person? He had so many questions, but he kept them to himself.

“...Wow, how did you manage to brick your hand twice in a row,” Antinomy said after they had gone through multiple drawing exercises.

“This is silly. Are we done yet?” First Antinomy made him do nonsensical things, and then he criticized him? Paradox was getting annoyed, not to mention that the other had yet to teach him anything to do with dueling. 

“We have to do something about that bad luck of yours first…”

“Like what? Exorcise me?”

Antinomy had a pensive look that made Paradox think that he really was considering the possibility. As far as he knew, Antinomy didn’t concern himself with the spiritual and neither did Z-one, not to mention that as far as he was concerned, there was no one else left on this desolate world. Even if Antinomy was considering an exorcism, no one could perform it. This was a useless line of thought, Paradox decided. Maybe Antinomy’s foolishness was rubbing off on him.

* * *

“Next, the rules of the game. Well, just read the rulebook. Simple, right?”

“I could do that myself. I thought you were going to teach me,” Paradox said. “That’s the whole point, isn’t it?”

“The rules are something you just have to know. Now, here you go.”

“...I don’t even know why I bother.” Paradox just closed his eyes and accepted the rulebook from Antinomy.

* * *

“I’d say that you finally have a good understanding of the rules. Now we can move onto the important part… Riding duels!” Antinomy said excitedly.

Paradox felt the blood drain out of his face. “No,” he said immediately.

“Don’t worry about it! It’s mostly autopilot anyways. You just need to stay on the D-Wheel and it will do the rest.”

Paradox was seriously reconsidering the whole dueling thing. Or at least, he regretted asking Antinomy to teach him instead of Z-one. But then he remembered that Z-one was busy with more important things, so he solemnly accepted his fate.

“Come on, it’s not that bad. I mean, you might only fall off a few times.”

“...A few times,” Paradox repeated.

“You can’t learn anything without taking a few falls. Literally.” Was that supposed to be some sort of consolation? Because honestly, Antinomy’s words weren’t helping at all. In fact, it only made things worse. 

“Look,” Antinomy continued, “if the rink wasn’t in shambles, I would take you skating to practice your balance, but alas.” Actually, that was something Paradox was glad that he could skip. He had no intention of making a fool out of himself on skates.

“Come on, you’ll never get anywhere if you keep stalling. Let’s start,” Antinomy said.

Thankfully, Paradox didn’t have to drive Antinomy’s Delta Eagle. That would have been a disaster. Not to say that the other would let him touch his precious D-Wheel in the first place. Rather, Antinomy and Z-one had built him a custom model, which was surprisingly large.

“This one has some extra features that Z-one asked for, hence the size. It’s pretty cool, huh?”

“...It’s definitely interesting, I’ll give you that.”

“Let’s bring it outside and see if we can find a clear strip of land that you can practice on.”

* * *

“There, that was easy, wasn’t it?”

“Not in the slightest.” God, he was never going to duel unless it was strictly necessary. His legs were shaking and his head felt light. If he could barely go as fast as Antinomy _insisted_ he go, then how could he also have the time to check his cards and play them? The whole idea was ridiculous. No wonder the world went to ruin.

“So, let’s have a duel right now!” Antinomy exclaimed, ignoring him. Paradox just looked at Antinomy. Wow, he really wasn’t joking.

“I’ll only do it as long as it’s a standing duel,” Paradox said. Even then, he was slightly unsure if he might unintentionally cause his friend harm.

“Where’s the fun in that? The adrenaline adds an extra kick in dueling.”

He tried to subtly refuse the offer. “I think you and I have a very different view of what’s ‘fun’, Antinomy.” 

Antinomy didn’t seem to back down from his original idea though, so Paradox chose the next best option. He ran away to his room and locked the door behind him. It was an electronic lock that he was pretty sure only Z-one could tamper with. At least now he knew the gist of the game. He could leave the finer details of it until later, or at least until he overcame his fear of the past.


End file.
